Touch My Katamari: So Desperate

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The King of All Cosmos needs your help.

By Ryan Clements

Long ago, the King of All Cosmos brought light to the sky and replaced the stars of the universe, giving the people of Earth a beautiful portrait and a source of great inspiration. This, as you might imagine, made the King of All Cosmos tremendously popular. And he savored that popularity, until a normal family -- in a discussion about the King's awesomeness -- mentioned that the King and the local school principle were equally cool.

This horrified the King of All Cosmos.

So begins Touch My Katamari, the next in a long line of Katamari games that have showcased a bizarre sense of humor and ball-rolling mechanics. In Touch My Katamari, you once again control the Prince in an effort to create stars. To accomplish this, the Prince rolls up a variety of earthly items -- all in an effort to restore his father's status as the coolest, most awesome being in existence. No easy task, I can assure you.

Humor and colorful characters aside, Touch My Katamari represents the Katamari tradition beautifully. With two analog sticks at your command, controlling the Katamari as it rolls through the world is easy. With each object it collects the Katamari grows in size and can subsequently snatch up larger objects. As has been the case for years, Touch My Katamari forces you to search for larger and larger objects while keeping one step ahead of an ever-ticking timer.

But with the Vita hardware comes a few notable changes to the familiar. In Touch My Katamari you can use the rear touch panel to distort the Katamari itself during play. Pulling your fingers out across the panel stretches the Katamari into a thin log shape while sliding them together presses it into a tall disc. This enables a whole new style of play in Touch My Katamari, giving you more control over how you gobble up objects and where your star-creator can roll.

The absurd Japanese humor of Touch My Katamari -- coupled with the intuitive controls -- makes this quirky adventure an intriguing edition to the Vita's upcoming software. But most importantly: Touch My Katamari just feels right on a handheld. The short missions seem to fit snugly in the train ride window of time, and the hardware gives you all the control you need over the little Prince.

All you need to do is roll up a few stars and make papa proud.

This article is based on a 15 minute demonstration of an incomplete version of Touch My Katamari, which included hands-on time. The session was supervised by a Namco Bandai representative.

Ryan Clements writes for IGN's PlayStation Team. You can follow him on myIGN and Twitter.